Paulson & Co., the U.S. hedge fund that won worldwide recognition for its correct bets on the U.S. housing market prior to the global financial crisis, isn’t backing down in its fight against the management of Toronto-based Detour Gold Corp.

On Thursday, Paulson & Co. announced it plans to call a special shareholder meeting by no later than July 28, when it will ask the rest of the company’s shareholders to oust “a majority” of the company’s board of directors.

The announcement followed a contentious exchange between the two companies a day earlier, in which Detour denied receiving any purchase offers, prompting Paulson & Co. to release an email it said the company’s interim chief executive Michael Kenyon sent that appeared to show otherwise. Paulson & Co. said a lawyer representing Detour on Wednesday threatened litigation against the hedge fund.

“Detour’s management and directors appear intent on using the company’s resources to engage in meritless litigation strategies,” Paulson & Co. wrote in a press release to shareholders on Thursday.

As one of the largest institutional investors in the company — it owns more than five per cent — it is entitled under Ontario securities laws to requisition a special meeting of shareholders.

Starting last month, Paulson & Co. began suggesting it would seek to replace Detour’s board, accusing the company of underperforming its peers and ignoring buyout offers from other mining companies.

Detour’s flagship mine is located in northwestern Ontario, and is expected to produce more than 600,000 ounces of gold per year for another two decades — likely ranking it among the dozen or so largest gold mines in the world.

But its chief executive Paul Martin resigned in May after failing to obtain an expansion permit for the mine, and cutting production goals and raising costs.

On Wednesday afternoon, Paulson & Co stated it received an email last week from Detour’s interim chief executive Kenyon stating a mining company is interested in purchasing the company.

Detour shares rose as much as 13 per cent on Wednesday, but were trading down just under 1 per cent to $13.8 per share on Thursday on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Several hours later, Detour issued a press release saying it has not received “any offers to purchase it shares,” and that it has asked the Ontario Securities Commission to investigate Paulson & Co.’s unlawful behavior.

Escalating the tit-for-tat, hours later, Paulson & Co. released the email, in which Kenyon purportedly wrote that a company had “expressed a renewed interest in Detour and possibly making an offer for the company.”

Paulson redacted the name of the company in the publicly released version of the email, which has fuelled speculation on which companies could purchase Detour.

CIBC Capital Market analysts on Thursday published a note ‘Who Could Devour Detour?”, which speculated that neither Agnico Eagle Mines Ltd, Kirkland Lake Gold Ltd nor Newmont Mining Corp. would be interested in such an acquisition.

On the other hand, Barrick Gold Corp., Goldcorp Inc. and Newcrest Mining Ltd. are all well-positioned to acquire such a large asset, the CIBC analysts wrote.

“Newcrest has expressed a goal of owning five tier-one ore bodies by 2020 and Detour could fit the bill, but the lack of mining experience in North America is an impediment,” the CIBC analysts wrote.

On Thursday in another press release, Detour wrote, “As for Paulson’s threat of running a proxy battle, we have heard this for many months now. If they choose to proceed, shareholders will have a stark choice — a fire sale by a U.S. hedge fund versus an experienced team.”